-Callia-

  The captain didn’t give me any more time to think before launching himself at me again. I brought my spear between the incoming blade and my body the moment before he reached me. For a moment the point of contact glowed with the clashing of auras, but the aura of his sword completely overwhelmed my own, driving me backwards. I slid backwards as my arms fought to resist the force overpowering me. The edge of his blade started digging deeper and deeper into the shaft of my spear. I try to twist my staff and adjust my pressure to break the deadlock, but the captain anticipates my motion and uses my maneuvers to press harder. I can feel trembling in my arms as accumulated fatigue makes resistance harder and harder. My only saving grace is the lack of pressure coming from the captain's movements. His legs were likely exhausted from the previous pursuit through the city.

  For a moment neither of us could do anything more than wheeze and grunt with our weapons locked together. In my hands I felt a weak tremor through the wood as the aura of the sword finally started to overpower the durability of the spear. I broke my stance and leaned backwards while removing all resistance. The sudden switch from pushing against me to no resistance immediately caused the captain to lose balance, falling forward towards me. My leg snapped upwards, trying to take advantage of the new opportunity. His blade continued to press down on me, but one of his hands snapped to intercept my kick, but despite reacting immediately unbalanced and exposed as he was, there was nothing he could do to stop my kick from landing on the man's chest plate. Unlike the regular guards, his was significantly sturdier. My kick managed to dent the plate, throwing the man back off me. Unfortunately, I was unable to further capitalize on the hit as gravity finished pulling me over onto my back.

  Immediately I bounced back to my feet, but my movements were only a heartbeat slower than the captain's. He threw himself back at me with vigor, switching from the power attacks of before into a series of intricate and rapid strikes. I parried the first jab with the spear and managed to turn away and only get clipped by the immediate follow-up, but the third strike sank into my left lung, poking a large hole in my chest. The hit finally gave me enough distance to try breathing again, but immediately I started choking up blood that was already flooding the organ.

  My attention and eyes were shot as I tried to keep my guard up even as the man landed more and more strikes. My eyes locked on the captain, doing everything in my power to bridge the power gap between us, but the pressure was relentless, and even as the thought of blinking away came up, I found I couldn’t risk taking my eyes off my opponent for even a second. Every blow landed like a hammer or chipped away at the edges of my body, leaving me increasingly bloodied.

  Crack! Under the relentless pressure, my spear finally couldn’t take any more. As he broke through, a clean, skin-deep cut opened up along my torso from shoulder to groin. The blow just barely caught my torso as I threw myself backwards at the last moment. I bounced off the ground and succumbed to another fit of coughing up blood as the captain loomed over me. I forced myself to turn away just before the captain’s sword stabbed into the dirt where I had just been. He adjusted faster than I could, pursuing and stabbing down into my leg, anchoring me to the ground. Immediately he pulled a knife on me to go for the kill, but he would need better bindings than a sword in my leg to stop me. I snapped my gaze to the side and repositioned myself as far from the tower as I felt I could safely manage.

  One moment from having my head removed, I blink and activate my blink. My eyes open up a considerable distance away from the captain. I pushed myself up and tried to flee, but the gaping hole in my leg turned my easy escape speed into an ordeal of stumbling. I moved away as quickly as possible while limiting any kind of disturbance, but it was an effort in futility as the captain locked on me again immediately. I summoned my bow and let loose as many arrows as I could across the plains between me and the captain. He easily swipes the first of the arrows aside but stumbles in shock as his sword fails to stop the next several arrows. From how he recoiled I could tell I landed a solid hit; it wasn’t enough to take him down. The inability to intercept arrows was immediately accounted for as the captain started doing everything in his power to deny me another hit. As the distance closed, my vision started seeing double. I snapped my focus back towards the central tower and blinked onto the second-floor landing platform.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I collapsed to my knees, leaning forward as more blood and exhaustion settled in. The world seemed to spin as my consciousness finally gave out. The last thing I saw was a group of curious people approaching me. The face of the unpleasant senior priestess almost gave me enough strength to get up and talk, but oblivion overpowered any sensibilities I had left.

  -Paladin Nokin-

  The girl Callia ran off with the high priest before he could return her gear, and his trusted friend had to leave to gather the resistance members he had been helping shelter over the past years of their cooperation. I couldn’t help but let out a weary sigh and a prayer wishing for the banishment of the demons that have infested the leadership. Moving to my secret compartment, I carefully collect the belongings of the girl. It seems it was no longer the time to lie low; the great revolution was finally at hand. The sheer scale of these changes brought hope and helped a smile crawl back onto my face.

  With the girls' gear in hand, I paused at a particular item. A small bead that paired with the right device could be used to track bags or thieves or really anyone who steals small valuable items. Quietly, I used some glue to paste it inconspicuously into one of Callia’s possessions. After that I run out to join the others who are likely gathered.

  After all these years waiting, I ended up being late to the initial assault on the fields. However, I still managed to return the goods to Callia before we began our next mission. I joined the front and fought with all my heart, but when the mission end signal was activated, I couldn’t help but be relieved it was finished before the high priest fell in battle to the captain of the void guard. The man was far more of a menace that I think any of us had anticipated. After that battle we waited and waited at the rally point, but Callia never returned.

  Using the device I planted, I pulled out a sensor and left the other paladins to wait and sit around twiddling their thumbs. She was moving rapidly across the city when I set off in pursuit. Then she set off towards the central tower. My eyes immediately narrowed with suspicion. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that the girl might actually be a spy and our previous ambush target, the space mage, might actually still be alive. I pursued her to the inner wall and then to the fields when I felt her suddenly take off into the sky above. I couldn’t help but feel immense frustration. Using a flying platform would almost certainly be something in the pope's control. I hit the ground determined to dig up whatever foul deeds our trusted ‘ally’ was really interested in.

  Using my earth affinity, I burrowed into the ground and set off towards the inner tower. Over the years my quietly observing stealth is the one true skill I have had plenty of practice mastering. Still, digging tunnels takes time, and several hours passed as I slowly bypassed the watchmen of the inner tower. In that time Callia had transferred from the upper floors into the vault. Finally, I arrived as Callia returned from whatever foul business she had in the vaults. I suspect she was using that opportunity to report her infiltration to the space mage. Peeking my head up, my attention is immediately drawn by the large hole billowing smoke in the side of the invulnerable walls. As she burst out of the tunnel coughing from the smoke, my gaze snapped to the side as the captain of the vault guards launched himself at her, brutally breaking down her defenses, scoring hit after hit after painful hit until she vanished before he could end her. Seeing the captain running to the tower in pursuit, I slowly nod to myself and follow behind. It seems she isn’t as suspicious as I originally expected.